Jacksonville group to participate in White Sox Super Hero Night

Dakotah Ehle (left) takes a photo of her friend Rebyka Watson as she poses with members of the Superheroes Saving Smiles Wednesday in Jacksonville’s Central Park.

Dakotah Ehle (left) takes a photo of her friend Rebyka Watson as she poses with members of the Superheroes Saving Smiles Wednesday in Jacksonville’s Central Park.

Photo: Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree | Journal-Courier

Heroes playing ball

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

A Jacksonville group will be in Chicago today to greet baseball fans attending the White Sox game against the New York Yankees.

Batman, Spider-Man and several other superheroes from the Superheroes Saving Smiles group will be involved with the team’s Super Hero Night at the stadium.

Nate Paulus, one of the group’s coordinators, said the group has been invited to different events around Jacksonville and other surrounding communities, but this big of an event is a first for them.

The group, made up of members who dress as famous superheroes and even some Disney princesses, has primarily visited children’s hospitals and attended different events in Jacksonville.

“I have no idea how they got our name. We did an event at the Springfield Flyers game and then we got a call from the White Sox a week ago,” Paulus said. “I found it surprising that our little group from Jacksonville is being asked to attend an event associated with a big name like the White Sox. We just got a call one day asking us if we’d like to come up for their heroes theme night.”

The Flash, Spider-Man, Catwoman, Star-Lord, Batman and Green Lantern will be making an appearance from the group.

While Paulus said the group hasn’t been told what they will be doing yet, he expects they’ll be meeting with fans and taking pictures, but said they could be doing other activities as well.

“I was just surprised that they called us and asked us to do this from little old Jacksonville,” Paulus said.

Paulus said the group was created in 2014 by accident.

“I was asked to dress up for Relay for Life and since I have absolutely no shame I said OK,” Paulus said. “I asked a couple people to do it with me to add more variety. Then we had these costumes that aren’t exactly cheap, so we found things to do with them and someone suggested children’s hospitals.

In addition to the children’s hospitals, the group has been asked to attend other events.

“It’s about making children smile,” Paulus said. “We dress up to talk to kids, and adults seem to like us too.”

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha.